The master's thesis in the Department of Geography / College of Education for Humanities / University of Basra_ Evaluating the efficiency of railway transport in Basra Governorate_ by the student Sabreen Hussein Jiad
The thesis presented by the student Sabreen Hussein Jiad aimed at (rail transport and its reality, through description, analysis and conclusion, and knowing its elements and characteristics and how it contributes to achieving an integrated performance of the land transport system in Basra Governorate and knowing the influential factors and human variables, and natural controls on railway transport, and measuring the efficiency of transport by applying a set of quantitative standards to measure the efficiency of transport, through a field study, then identifying the most important problems and obstacles and studying the future prospects for railway transport in Basra Governorate.
The thesis included four chapters. The first chapter: It consists of two topics, the first topic is the historical development of railways in Basra Governorate, with two historical stages, while the second topic dealt with the elements of railway transport. As for the second chapter: It dealt with the factors affecting railway transport in Basra Governorate Basra, and is divided into two sections. The first section deals with the natural controls affecting railway transport, the most important of which are: geographical location, geological structure, soil, surface topography, climate and its elements (temperature, rain, wind, dust storms), and water resources. The second section deals with the human variables affecting railway transport in Basra Governorate, which are (population growth and geographical distribution, political factors, economic factors), and the negative and positive impact of these factors on railway transport.
As for the third chapter, it was devoted to studying the efficiency of transport by applying a set of criteria to evaluate the efficiency of railway transport in Basra Governorate, including: the ease of access criterion, the degree of network interconnection criterion (connection), the network diameter criterion, the network centrality, the turning index, the nearest neighbor, and the line density criterion). While the fourth chapter was divided into three sections, the first section dealt with the specifications of railway transport in Basra Governorate, the second section dealt with the problems of railway transport in Basra Governorate. While the third section dealt with the reality and future of railway transport in Basra Governorate. At the end of the study, a set of results and proposals were reached, in addition to a list of sources.
Among the most important results reached by the researcher:
The study also reached several results, the most important of which is that natural components have positive effects, but the nature of the sedimentary land in Basra Governorate, which facilitated the extension of railways in it, but it consists of recent, soft sediments that require the laying of a layer of gravel and sand, and the study found that the amount of goods transported during the period (1970_2023) amounted to (2570993660) tons, and the number of passengers transported during the period (2004_2023) amounted to (9844896) passengers
